The $40 million that Justice Anderson ruled last week that the Government should pay to a man who was paralysed by police bullets should help to concentrate minds and add urgency to efforts to reform the constabulary.

For, what should be pellucid, assuming, somehow, it was not clear before, is that an out-of-control constabulary is not only bad for the society, but potentially expensive business for the state. And that, ultimately, means added burden for taxpayers.

This case, of course, is not unlike the many about which people complain all too often in Jamaica, mostly without consequence. But, even at that, several are in the files of the units of the constabulary that investigate police excesses, or in the dockets of prosecutors for determining whether criminal charges should be proffered.

Increasingly, though, victims are preferring to pursue civil cases, which was the approach of Lloyd Clarke, of Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland.

Mr Clarke was 20 at the time, in July 2006, when he was shot while walking along a street in the western Jamaican town. This young mason was paralysed from the waist down and will need lifelong support in caring for himself.

He sued three policemen, Constables R. Barrett and M. Bernard and Corporal E.F. Quest, as well as the attorney general. Justice Sarah Thompson-James ruled that the defendants were liable for Clarke's injury and last week Justice Anderson assessed damages.

The difference between this and previous cases is that Justice Anderson's assessment represented, potentially, a new benchmark for awards in personal-injury cases of the kind. There have been few, if any, awards of this size in past cases, and certainly not in cases where the police officers were held liable for the injury.

Damage assessment

Perhaps the biggest prior damage assessment against the police was the $13.5 million awarded by the courts in December 2006 to Deborah Douglas, who was shot by cops while sitting in a taxi, in what many believe was a case of egregious recklessness. Police, it was claimed, were chasing gunmen when, supposedly, they fired shots, one of which hit Ms Douglas.

It is clear that the value of personal-injury awards generally, and those against the police in particular, are on the rise, with the courts apparently taking into account the impact of inflation, new standards of value and, perhaps, a growing intolerance of the public to the abuse of human rights.

Credible cases

Such awards against the police represent a contingent liability against the Government. When they are all added up, they are not cheap. Assuming, for instance, that there are 200 outstanding cases in which injury victims have credible cases against the police. A settlement of these at, say, an average of $30 million each, would mean a debt to the Government of $6 billion.

Of course, many such cases, unjustly, will not get anywhere but, given a new deepening awareness of people to their rights, some will. And the potential cost is obvious.

Any reform of the police force should factor this, making it clear that it is far cheaper, in the long run, if we insist on prudent police behaviour and rigorous enforcement of standards. It would probably help, too, if members of the police force whose misbehaviour was egregious were made to pay a portion of the damages.

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